Table of contents

Twitter

Location sharing in DMs

On April 3, Twitter announced a new customer service feature for businesses: the ability to request and share locations in Direct Messages. When a business requests a location in a conversation, the person they’re talking to will have the option to ignore the request, share a precise location, or pick a place name from a list.

Starting today, businesses can request and share locations when engaging with people in Direct Messages. https://t.co/rpYndqWfQw

Twitter Lite

On April 6, Twitter introduced Twitter Lite, a pared down version of the mobile web experience intended for emerging marketings. Twitter Lite is designed to minimize data usage, load quickly on slow connections, work well on unreliable mobile networks, and take up less than 1MB of storage. It is available globally.

Twitter Lite is a faster, data friendly way for people to use Twitter to see what’s happening in the world.

Customer Periscope hearts

On April 10, Twitter introduced custom hearts for live and on-demand Periscope video. The new offering gives brands an opportunity to add more branding to their Periscope broadcasts through custom graphics that are activated using a specific hashtag.

Facebook

Testing free version of Workplace

Workplace, the social network’s enterprise-focused collaboration offering, originally launched in October 2016 after beta testing with select companies.

The new offering will be called Workplace Standard, while the paid option will be renamed Workplace Premium. Facebook product manager Simon Cross told CNBC that the company hopes the new option will entice companies to test out the product, perhaps within a team or department, before committing to Premium.

Additionally, it makes it easier for smaller companies and those in emerging markets to give it a try.

Rocket icon

At the beginning of April, some Facebook users started spotting a rocket ship icon in the mobile app, reported Mashable. Positioned next to the main News Feed icon, the rocket ship shows users popular posts from people and Pages they haven’t friended or liked.

A Facebook spokesperson told Mashable: “We are always working to make sure people see the most relevant stories that they care about, but sometimes people haven’t liked a Page they may be interested in. In order to help people find relevant stories that might not currently be in their News Feed, we are testing this separate feed.”

Canvas API

On April 3, Facebook introduced an API for Canvas ads, reported Marketing Land. Advertisers can now create Canvas ads through third-party software tools. Previously advertisers had to create each Canvas ad individually through Facebook’s desktop site.

Through the API, marketers can select media—such as photos, videos, text, and product sets—from an already uploaded catalogue and reuse previously created Canvas ads, making the offering more accessible to more advertisers.

Ads insights

The redesigned Delivery Insights feature now provides in-depth auction metrics, guidance for interpreting fluctuations in performance, and trends in an ad set’s impressions, amount spent, results, and cost-per-result as well as auction metrics to explain those trends.

Estimated Daily Results is a new feature that will give advertisers estimates on the results they can expect to see in a day, factoring in things like budget, audience, bid amount, and placements selections. It can be viewed as a budget curve or slider bar.

False news education tool

The tool will provide information and resources in the Facebook Help Center, including tips on how to identify false news, such as checking the URL or investigating the source. The tool will be featured at the top of News Feed for several days for users in 14 countries.

Suggestions for Messenger assistant M

M recognizes intent in a conversation and will include suggestions such as stickers, payment requests, location sharing, and more. The feature is available to all iOS and Android users in the U.S. and will roll out to other countries in the future.

New tools for small businesses

Facebook is expanding single inbox to desktop. Originally released in November 2016, single inbox allows businesses to manage communications across Facebook, Messenger and Instagram from a single unified inbox. It’s now available within both the Pages Manager App and on desktop.

The social network has also launched a site dedicated to the Facebook Small Business Council. The site features stories from more than 40 businesses across a variety of industries and regions.

Facebook Spaces

Users can upload a photo and customize their VR appearance, draw with virtual markers, relive personal memories from their own Timeline, make calls to “the real world” using Messenger video calling, and more.

Along with this announcement comes the launch of two new creative tools: Frame studio and AR Studio, giving people the ability to create a full spectrum of camera effects from simple frames to interactive augmented reality (AR) experiences.

Workplace updates

New integrations with enterprise cloud services—such as OneDrive, Dropbox, and others—to make it easier to share, preview, and organize files

The ability for Workplace customers to build bots to improve day-to-day workflows in both groups and chat

Support from bot platform partners, such as Converse, PullString, and The Bot Platform

Security and compliance integrations via partnerships with cloud compliance, e-discovery, and data-loss prevention providers, such as Disco and Smarsh

Workplace Live API and production partners

Related articles

On April 25, Facebook began to test Related Articles that appear before users read an article shared in News Feed. While Related Articles have existed in Facebook since 2013, they typically appear after people read an article.

With the new test, the additional articles will appear in a unit below the link prior to a user opening it. In a newsroom post, Facebook explained that they “should provide people easier access to additional perspectives and information, including articles by third-party fact-checkers.”

Dynamic Ads for Travel expanded

On April 27, Facebook expanded Dynamic Ads for Travel to include flights. Released last year, Dynamic Ads for Travel give advertisers a way to promote hotels and destinations across devices to people booking trips. The ads can be based on things like location and time.

Now flight advertisers can promote flight inventory by route and schedule based on when and where people want to go. The new offering is available for advertisers globally across Facebook, Instagram, and Audience Network.

Instagram

New direct messages

On April 11, Instagram made an update to Direct, enabling users to make their conversations more visual. Text and reshares will now appear in the same thread as disappearing photos and videos for a more seamless experience.

Retiring ‘Like’ button

The platform says they’ll move any Pins a user has liked to a new secret board called “Your Pinterest Likes.” The change will happen in the coming weeks.

YouTube

YouTube Go beta in India

On April 4, YouTube launched YouTube Go beta in India. The app is the platform “reimagined for the next generation of YouTube users.” It features video recommendations tailored to user preferences, is designed to be offline first, gives users more control over data usage, and allows for easier video sharing.

YouTube TV

On April 5, YouTube rolled out YouTube TV. Originally announced in February, YouTube TV is a new cable-like TV service that offers streaming from more than 40 networks. Priced at $35, YouTube TV is currently available in the U.S.’s largest metro areas—New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, and Philadelphia—with more markets coming soon.

YouTube is offering a one month free trial for new users as well as a complimentary Google Chromecast after a user’s first month’s payment.

Once someone submits a form, the user collecting leads will receive a comprehensive lead record including the person’s name, contact info, company name, seniority, job title, location, and more.

LinkedIn explained: “Because this lead data comes from the member’s up-to-date LinkedIn profile, it is typically more accurate and complete than what you’d get from traditional website forms—where people can enter false or partial information.”

Message from anywhere—users can now message professional connections from anywhere on the LinkedIn desktop experience

Insights to start conversations—to make job searching easier, LinkedIn has added relevant suggestions within messaging on Jobs and Company pages to help users start a conversation, like displaying which of the user’s connections work there

One-tap replies—when messaging on mobile, users can choose from auto-generated message replies such as “Thanks” or “I’ll get back to you”

PointDrive

On April 18, LinkedIn released PointDrive, new functionality inside of Sales Navigator that offers a more professional way to deliver personalized content in order to drive engagement between buyers and sellers.

Hootsuite

Integration Fund and new developer program

Snapchat

World Lenses

On April 18, Snapchat introduced World Lenses, a new way for users to engage with Lenses. World Lenses let users activate their rear-facing camera to interact with their environment using augmented reality.

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